Chapter 1
Jade
“More drama than ABC has soap operas.”
~ Nora O’Sullivan
“Six weeks. Six dates. Six different guys.” I lifted my rum and coke and took a sip as I sank against the high back chair at The Tipsy Cow, the local bar that my family had owned for over twenty years. First, my parents and since they’ve retired now my brother Bryson had taken the reins, but I put my two cents in all the time…which I’m sure he appreciates.
Two beautiful faces stared back at me, dumbfounded.
I gave my best friend and my sister-in-law time to allow it to sink in.
“You agreed to go out on dates…with six different guys?” Bella, my childhood bestie asked in way of clarification.
“Yes, and then I’ll be doing a segment on Vanessa’s podcast where I talk about each of them and the whole experience.”
“But you hate dating,” Kelsi, my brother’s new bride, pointed out. “And you’re really private.”
“I hate driving to the city, too, and Vanessa’s studio is in Dallas but this is business not pleasure. Since Vanessa’s book hit The New York Times Best Seller list, her podcast has blown up. And there’s no direct correlation, given that she covers dating and relationships and I work in marketing and event planning…but I have to think outside the box! In exchange for being her dating guinea pig, I get free advertising on her blog and also plugs before and after my segments.” After earning my MBA, six months ago, I’d started my own marketing and event planning business, 50/50 Consulting. The name held a special meaning since my business plan was to have an equal number of paying and pro bono clientele. I wanted to help charities, nonprofits, and small businesses, that otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford my services, reach their full potential.
“You’re really going to talk about your dates on the podcast?” Kelsi asked.
“I already have. The first episode is up. I can send you the link if you guys want to hear it. Spoiler alert: we didn’t make it past drinks.”
“What happened?” Bella’s blue eyes widened.
“I left after he told me my score.” I took another sip of my drink.
“Hold on.” My SIL’s elbows rested on the table as she leaned forward and narrowed her eyes. “Your score?”
“Yep,” I confirmed as I set down my highball glass. “He rated me. And, bonus, he did it loud enough that the bartender and the couple seated beside us overheard as well.”
“Rated you? Like what?” Kelsi’s head tilted to the side in confusion. “Like on a scale from one to ten?”
I nodded. “Exactly, and there were three categories.”
Kelsi’s brows lifted. “Categories?”
“Maybe he was kidding,” Bella inserted, always one to give the benefit of the doubt.
It blew my mind that my oldest and dearest friend remained sweet and borderline naïve despite losing both her parents at an early age, getting shipped off to a distant relative at age fifteen only to discover that she was pregnant with her childhood sweetheart’s baby. As if that wasn’t bad enough she had the baby on her own, a baby which turned out to have serious heart issues, gets married, then is cheated on and divorced—and all before the age of thirty. Talk about a life that would make a bad country song. Yet in spite of it all she always remained optimistic.
At least things had worked out for her now, but those had to have been unbelievably tough years, yet somehow she’d managed to retain her glass-half-full outlook.
“How is it that after all you’ve been through you are still an eternal optimist?” My question was only half-rhetorical.
“It’s a gift.” She wore her sunny disposition proudly. “I try to give people the benefit of the doubt and I always have faith that things are going to work out.” Her eyes fell to the two-carat rock that resided on her left hand ring finger. About a year ago she’d returned to Wishing Well and reunited with her baby daddy. They were now living out their happily-ever-after and I couldn’t be happier for her.
“Maybe he has a strange sense of humor and he was using it as an icebreaker,” she offered with a shrug.
“He wasn’t kidding,” I assured her. “He was serious. He explained his criteria, very clearly.”
“His criteria?” Kelsi repeated, obviously appalled.
My head bobbed up and down like a bobble head doll. “He scores women on three categories; above the neck, below the neck, and overall presentation. He said that above the neck I got a ten but my score dropped down to a six below the neck—”
“What?!” Bella’s entire demeanor changed as her shoulders squared defensively. “Your body is a ten.”
“Thanks.” I appreciated her support but it was unnecessary. Despite my myriad of insecurities, my physical appearance was not one of them.
At least not anymore.
When I was younger it had been. Growing up, I’d always compared myself to Bella who was petite and resembled a fairytale princess with her long blonde hair, porcelain complexion, and huge, blue eyes. My eyes were also blue, but they had an almond shape and were darker than hers. My complexion was olive, or sun-kissed as my mom liked to say. My hair was inky black and I’d always had extra junk in my trunk and thigh area, which put me in jeans several sizes larger than my bestie.
I’d grown to appreciate my curves and exotic looks now that we lived in the post-Kardashian era, but as a teen, all I’d wanted was to be a blonde, Barbie look-alike.
“He gave my hair a nine—”
“Also a ten,” Bella insisted as she lifted her hand in protest.
“And for overall presentation he scored me a seven because I was wearing, how did he put it? Oh right. A dress that didn’t advertise my goods. Which gave me an average score of eight. He was then quick to point out that I barely made the cut to continue the date because he only dates eights and above.”
“Oh hell no.” Kelsi grabbed her drink and took a sip.
“Oh hell yes.” I lifted my drink and did the same.
“What…why…how does someone say that, especially on a first date?” Bella’s face scrunched as she tried to make sense of the unimaginable.
“I don’t know if it was a kind of psychological game to make me feel like I was lucky that I’d scored high enough to be worthy of his time or if he’s just an asshole—”
“Or both,” Kelsi cut in.
“Or both,” I seconded. “But either way, he was lucky that I was wearing my new Louboutin heels because if I’d had on my Steve Maddens they would’ve been up his ass.”
“Cheers to that.” Bella lifted her blended Midori Margarita and Kelsi and I clinked the edges of our glasses with hers. After sipping her drink, Bella set down her glass, with her face scrunching up, she asked, “So why did she ask you to be on the show again? It’s just to talk about your dates?”
“She does six week segments that spotlight different areas of dating, sex, and relationships. Her polyamory series was fascinating. If you get a chance you should listen to it. Anyway, this series is focusing on the differences between online dating and meeting someone in real life. And we’re not using anyone’s real names to protect the innocent, or guilty in this case. It’s kind of therapeutic, actually. After talking about the date, I erased him from my memory.”
“Do the guys you’re dating know that you’re doing it for a show?” Bella’s eyes widened.
“Nope. Vanessa wanted the experiences to be as real as possible and if the guys knew that I was going to be broadcasting every detail of our date, it would most likely change their behavior. We did something kind of like this in college when she had a radio show, I would come on and talk about my adventures in dating.” Vanessa had bribed me to agree to that too. We were roommates and she offered to clean the entire dorm room, including making my bed for a week each time I came on.
“What is the podcast called, I don’t want to forget?” Kelsi pulled out her phone.
“Wrap it Up with Dr. Cupid.”
“Oh, I saw an ad for that,” Bella said as her face lit up. “It caught my attention because of the name.”
A smile spread on my face from ear to ear. “Good, then it’s working. Vanessa worried that it was too cheesy but Cupid is her last name and she has a PHD, so I talked her into it.”
“Do you get to pick the guys that you’re going to date?” Bella’s excitement grew. She really did believe in soulmates, fate, and forever.
I used to believe…but not anymore.
“Sort of. I created my own online profile and I get to select my dates.”
“What about the guys you’re meeting in real life?” Kelsi seemed genuinely perplexed.
“Well for one I’ll do speed dating, then I’ll be set up by a matchmaker, and then for the last one, I’m supposed to be set up by my family and friends. But, I’m going to set myself up and ask Coop to do it.”
I was calling in a ringer. Since high school, Cooper Briggs had been my stand-in plus one. Whenever I didn’t have a date to an event, he’d step in and play the role of doting significant other. Thankfully, since he was the quintessential ladies’ man and had never had a relationship that lasted more than one month, there was never a jealous girlfriend to contend with.
“You mean you’re not going to let your mom set you up?” Kelsi teased.
“No,” I shook my head. “Nora O’Sullivan has lost her set-up privileges after she set me up with her friend’s son last summer and he took me fishing and used a hook to pick his toenails. Remember?”
“Ewww!” Kelsi’s face scrunched. “I forgot about that.”
“I wish I could forget about that.”
“I still can’t believe that you agreed to do this,” Bella said in disbelief. “You’ve always said how much you hate dating.”
“True, but this isn’t really about dating.”
“And it’s only six dates. How bad could it be?” Kelsi offered supportively.
“I don’t really care about the dates and I’ve already picked up a new client. I was hired by the media company that produces the podcast to plan their annual Charity Gala. They put it on every year and from what I’ve seen from the research I’ve done on past attendees it’s the who’s who of the Dallas elite. It’s going to be great exposure.
“The dates are just a means to an end. Speaking of which, bachelor number two will be here any minute for Trivia Night. After the disaster that was the first date I figured it would be better to be on my own turf. I have the home field advantage and I don’t have to drive an hour to the city and not even make it to dinner.”
“Where did you meet this one?” Kelsi asked.
“His name is Sam and I found him on GroupMeet. It’s this app where you post a group activity and potential daters can click that they’re interested and if you like one of them you send them an invite. It’s supposed to be safer since you’re meeting people in a group activity.”
“It sounds so…complicated.”
“Welcome to the world of digital dating.”
“Ugh.” A visible shudder ran through Bella. “I’m so happy that I don’t have to deal with that. I don’t want to think about what Sadie is going to face. Since I had her so young, I thought that I’d be able to relate more. But I can’t even imagine what it’s like to try and make a real connection with someone over social media and apps.”
“If Milo has anything to say about it, I don’t think that she’ll have to resort to technology to have a real connection,” Kelsi laughed as she brought up her little brother.
“Aww.” Bella held her hands to her chest. “I would love it if those two ended up together. I think it’s so cute that they insist they ar–”
“Just friends,” the three chorused.
The newly minted teenagers were inseparable and basically had cartoon hearts floating around their heads when they looked at one another, but whenever anyone suggested that their feelings might be romantic they were quick to correct them.
“So are you just doing this for exposure or are you really interested in finding something…real?” Bella questioned.
“I don’t know about real.” Real hurts, that’s what life taught me at way too early an age. Before I even had my license, my heart had been in a near-fatal collision that I was still recovering from close to fifteen years later. Since Bella and Kelsi had no idea about any of that I tried to lighten the mood. “I just want a guy that opens the door for me and then slaps my ass when I walk through it. I mean, is that too much to ask for?”
I didn’t think so, but then again, I was the sole single lady at the table so obviously I wasn’t the expert.
“I think I can help you with that.” A baritone voice that I’d know anywhere rumbled beside me.
I looked up to see none other than Cooper Briggs. “Just the man I wanted to see.”
“I get that a lot.” The dimple that appeared in his left cheek as he smirked was one of the reasons that statement was true.
He was what those closest to him lovingly referred to as a man-whore. He loved women and they loved him. He’d dated at least ninety percent of the age-appropriate female population of Wishing Well, myself included.
Our romance, like all of Coop’s relationships, was brief. It ended with us deciding that we were much better off as friends.
“Is it heavy?” I asked with sincerity.
His forehead creased as he asked, “What?”
“Your ego,” I said flatly.
Amusement and challenge glinted in his eyes and I knew the next words out of his mouth were going to be dirty.
“Not as heavy as my co—”
“Coop!” Tanya Langston screamed from across the bar, effectively cutting short Cooper’s response.
“My Coop.” He finished with a wink in my direction before turning toward the peppy redhead.
“Are you here for Trivia Night?” She clapped her hands excitedly.
“No, I’m meeting someone here.”
Her enthusiasm deflated like a balloon and her face dropped but she covered well and came back strong with an enthusiastic “Who are you meeting?”
“No one near as pretty as you, darlin’.”
Cooper’s cheesy lines had always entertained me and this one was no different. Not able to help myself I turned my head, a movement spurred by my massive eye roll, to see whether or not Tanya was buying the Arizona ocean front property that Coop was selling her. If the blush on her pale cheeks was any indication, she was signing the deed.
“Looks like my date has arrived.” Coop tilted his head toward the entrance.
My eyes automatically went to the door and that’s where I saw the only man that had ever made my cheeks blush.
Hayden Reed.
He stood beneath the large industrial pendant light that hung over the entrance. His light brown hair was messy in the way that always made my fingers itch to run through it. His chiseled jaw was covered with stubble and I immediately wished that it was brushing along my body as he sprinkled soft kisses on my sensitive skin. The overhead illumination highlighted his long, dark lashes and his golden-brown eyes. His broad shoulders and sculpted chest stretched the boundaries of the soft, worn cotton of the gray Army T-shirt he wore.
Just being in the same room as him had my heart skipping like a fifth grader playing Double Dutch.
If there were ever a man that I wanted to erase from my memory, it would be Hayden Reed. The man that took away my belief in happily-ever-after. The man that taught me not to depend on people. The man that broke my heart in so many pieces I wasn’t sure if it would ever be whole again. No matter how hard I tried, he was a part of me, imprinted on my DNA…and it really pissed me off.